Author: Bharti Jain
Publication: The Economic Times
Dated: November 21, 2007
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Will these
'secularists' now stop hounding Gujarat deliberately spreading lies? And will
they devote the same energy in other areas where there is merit? I doubt it.
It would not suit their destructive agenda.]
The 'guardians of minority rights' in Gujarat
may cry themselves hoarse over the alleged "omission" of over 2,000
Muslim voters from the state's electoral rolls, but a correction drive undertaken
by the Election Commission earlier this month saw only 440 persons coming
forward to have their names included in the voters' list.
The EC was acting on a specific complaint
by Citizens for Peace and Justice activist Teesta Setalvad in late October
alleging large-scale exclusion of Muslim voters in the Shahpur assembly segment
constituency in Ahmedabad. Though the complaint in itself did not put down
the number of these "omitted" voters, the complainants orally put
the figure at 1,300-1,400. Other reports estimated it at 2,000, alleging that
the names of minority community voters had been deliberately kept out of the
rolls for the Muslim-dominated Shahpur by a "pro-Modi administration".
Though the Commission was convinced with the
explanation by the state administration that it had deleted the names only
after due enquiry and filing of panchnamas and underlying papers, it nevertheless
agreed to invite objections regarding the "missing" names in an
on-the-spot rolls revision exercise. Having set November 3 and 4 as the two
days when the omitted voters could approach the authorities to seek inclusion
in the voters' list, all that the Commission got were 440 visitors. Of these,
around 400 were accommodated in the rolls after the requisite verification.
These were mainly found to be voters who were not present at the relevant
address during enumeration.
The claims of the remaining 30-40 voters could
not be entertained as their credentials were not verifiable or were underage.
That the EC's rolls revision exercise was
fair is best borne by the fact that the Citizens for Peace and Justice itself
has conveyed to the Commission its "satisfaction" over the verification
exercise taken by the EC and its efforts to remove any anomalies in the electoral
rolls.
"There has not been a single deletion
by the authorities suo motu...for every claim accepted or rejected, there
is a supporting panchnama or underlying paper," a senior EC official
told ET. In any case, the official added, on an average, there is 9-10% change
in names included in the electoral rolls on account of migration (6-8%), death
(1%) and attaining of voting age (2%).
Going by the Commission's own admission, Gujarat
this time ranks on par with West Bengal regarding accuracy in electoral paperwork
ahead of the election, leaving states like UP and Bihar far behind.
As for the faulty EPICs issued to some of
the voters, the EC explains that this is not deliberate and the information
on the I-cards would be corrected as and when an objection is received. Even
the allegation that the omissions were deliberately done to keep out Muslim
voters, an official pointed out that the complainants had mostly examined
segments dominated by the minority community, raising the likelihood of the
missing voter being a Muslim.